Ultra Tour Monte Rosa

My third and biggest ultra yet! I applied to the Mont Blanc Ultra (UTMB) but didn't get a place so looked around for an alternative and decided on this. Lizzy Hawker was inspired to create the race after using the area for training for the UTMB. The website describes it as 'a serious challenge – brutal, beautiful and brilliant'. It's a bit longer than last year's run but more than twice as much ascent - this is going to be a real test!

14 Jan

Gear I've bought

Petzl Nao headtorch

One of the things I learned from doing LIAD last year was that you need a decent headtorch for running off-road at night - so this was on my birthday list for today!

21 Jan

Training update

Turbo training

The turbo is a great way of staying in my heart-rate zone for training. I picked up the cheapest one from Halfords for £60 and it's perfect.

31 Jan

Training update

Maffetone isn't killing me!

I've been following Maffetone for over a year now - basically it's low intensity training combined with low-carbs, which means I burn fat for fuel. To make sure this isn't doing me any longer-term harm, I took a full-on blood test which tested 50 different measures. The results are in and I'm perfectly healthy - excellent cholesterol profile, good liver/kidney function and low heart disease risk plus loads of other good stuff.

20 Feb

Training update

Peak District training

18 miles of proper running in the Hope and Edale Valleys up on to Kinder Scout in some seriously bleak weather. Just what I needed to blow off the cobwebs.

02 Jul

Event I'm doing

Ripon Tour Sportive

I signed up for this a few years ago and bailed out due to illness - so this year I'm going to tackle it as part of my training. Looking forward to those hills... not.